Danger Lurks in Growing New Internet Nationalism

Danger Lurks in Growing New Internet Nationalism by Bruce Schneier.

-- Tom

 

Wars will start over cyber espionage sooner or later...

 

Not necessarily. Not all spying incidents in history ended up in a war... I don't see why cyber-espionage would be different.

 

What do you think would happen if China would shut down power supply to entire east coast for 1 week. This kind of espionage has much highest destructive potential.

 

That would be an attack, not just espionage!

What's truly frightening is the possibility that some kids in Kansas could do it for the lulz, and blame it on China. It's also possible that China could do it and blame it on some kids in Kansas, but that would be a seriously high-risk move.

Truly ironic is the possibility that Stuxnet source might serve as the basis for either attack, and that both potential attackers can get it online. Nuclear proliferation has occurred over the past 70 years, but barriers to entry are still quite high. Entry barriers for cybermunition proliferation are negligible in comparison. I'm reminded of that classic Stand on Zanzibar

 

Exactly. I'm more worried about those 15 yr old kids who are as familiar with computers and related stuff as I am with my old Royal typewriter.

I still think back to a few years ago when a couple of teens broke through Los Alamos laboratory security. High school aged kids who couldn't even work there without a degree, but ended up explaining to college graduate computer security 'experts' how they did it, in return for leniency on the charges.